Wireless local area networks (WLANs) conforming to specifications in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (“IEEE”) 802.11 family typically involve a basic service set (BSS) managed by a device acting in the role of an access point (AP). Each BSS may be identified by a service set identifier (SSID), such that a wireless communications device, or station (STA) using a WLAN protocol may receive broadcast messages or beacons from access points within range advertising the SSID of their associated networks. Stations may also form wireless links directly with each other in peer-to-peer or ad hoc topologies in which WLAN devices may discover each other and share data traffic directly, without the instance of a traditional access point. This type of network configuration may be known as an independent basic service set (IBSS). One example of a peer-to-peer network is a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) Direct™ network. As IBSS networks typically do not have a distribution system or other dedicated device to control the network, one peer may undertake certain management functions by acting in the role of peer-to-peer group owner (P2P GO) and one or more additional devices may associate with the GO as P2P clients. In other situations, one wireless device may assume one or more roles associated with access point functionality, acting as a software-enabled access point (SAP).
As a consequence of the increase in popularity of WLAN technologies, congestion for operations on the 2.4 GHz band has increased. This situation is exacerbated given that the 2.4 GHz band is part of the Industrial, Science and Medical radio band allocated by the FCC for a wide range of wireless technologies, including Bluetooth. Although WLAN communications operate on an asynchronous protocol and access the wireless medium using Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) mechanisms while Bluetooth communications rely on time division multiplex access (TDMA) mechanisms, sharing the 2.4 GHz band may still result in interference between the two communications systems. This problem is exacerbated by the physical collocation of the systems when both are implemented in a single device. Indeed, current trends are moving from each system being carried on separate integrated circuits to merging both onto a single chip in system on a chip (SoC) designs. As a result, there is a trend to provide devices with the capability to operate on different bands, such as the 5 GHz band, to avoid congestion and potentially benefit from increased performance. Correspondingly, a wireless communications device may be able to operate on a plurality of bands, such as the 2.4 GHz band, the 5 GHz band or others, as noted. However, when wireless communications devices associate with each other, the link may still be formed on one band, such as the 2.4 GHz band, by default or by chance. This may cause performance degradation when WLAN operation of the device experiences interference with another wireless technology, such as Bluetooth. Performance degradation may also result from congestion on the selected band or from other conditions that differentially affect only some of the available bands of operation.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a wireless communications device that may select among bands of operation to enhance performance. Similarly, it would be desirable to exchange information regarding operation on different frequency bands. As will be appreciated from the material that follow, this disclosure satisfies these and other goals.